Ilya Bryzgalov flew far from under the radar during his first season with the Flyers. In fact, if he were a fighter pilot, he’d have been blown out of the sky by the end of October.

Signed to a nine-year, $51 million contract in June, Bryzgalov was supposed to bring stability to a position that had been anything but stable in Philadelphia since, well, a long time ago.

He started out decently enough, winning his first two games and allowing just one goal in the process.

Then it got interesting.

Now, it’s not our intention to use Flyers Day on PHT to look back on Bryzgalov’s tumultuous season. (Feel free to search his name for that. Enjoy the 1,073 posts.)

Our intention is to look forward to 2012-13. Specifically, can the 32-year-old Russian rediscover the form that earned him the big contract in the first place?

From 2007-08 to 2010-11 with the Coyotes, Bryzgalov was one of the NHL’s elite goalies. During his last season in Phoenix, he went 36-20-10 with a .921 save percentage and seven shutouts.

Yet despite those numbers, everyone knew the Flyers were taking a considerable risk by locking him up for nine years.

First off, Bryzgalov had never played in a high-pressure market like Philadelphia. Suffice to say his eccentricities didn’t get as much play in Phoenix.

Second, the Coyotes play a defense-first system under coach Dave Tippett, and defense-first systems often mean fewer quality shots against. As a result, goalies can have their save percentages inflated.

Philadelphia, of course, plays a very different style than Phoenix, and Chris Pronger’s absence for all but 13 games didn’t help shore things up on the back end.

For optimistic Flyers fans, Bryzgalov now knows exactly what he’s gotten himself into by signing in Philadelphia. If the media caught him off guard when he first arrived, it won’t this time. Nor will HBO cameras be stalking him.

Bryzgalov will also be familiar with the players in front of him, save for new additions Luke Schenn and, possibly, Shea Weber.

Speaking of Weber, it’s hard for a goalie to get worse with the addition of one of the best defenseman in the league.

Optimists will also take comfort in Bryzgalov’s post All-Star Game numbers (.929 SV%) compared to the ones prior to Jan. 29 (.895 SV%).

For pessimists, it’s hard to overlook what happened in the playoffs when Bryzgalov allowed 37 goals in 11 games. (To put that in perspective, Jonathan Quick allowed 29 goals in 20 games.)

Obviously we don’t know if Bryzgalov will bounce back. But what we do know is he’s used his mulligan. Another less-than-stellar season and that contract looks a lot longer.

The key: after only being able to study brains of deceased athletes, there’s a chance that living athletes with CTE might eventually be identified.

On face value, that’s great news for player health. Hockey, like other contact sports such as football, is no stranger to careers and lives being derailed by brain injuries.

Of course, the NHL and NHLPA would need to cooperate to make the most of potential progress. If you’ve watched hockey long enough, particularly postseason hockey, you know that certain protocols can stand as great concepts met with hesitant execution.

Westhead expounds on such thoughts, and some of his findings aren’t very pretty.

Players might be hesitant to take such tests if it means that they’ll miss playing time (or even see their careers end). It brings back memories of Peyton Manning willfully sandbagging his baseline concussion test. For better or worse, these guys want to play.

NHL player agent: “If I asked 30 of my players if they would take a test to tell them if they have CTE, I think zero would be interested."

Of course, it’s crucial to realize that potential breakthroughs from this study could take quite some time to trickle into functional practices, even if leagues and players end up being more willing to comply than expected.

Overall, this is promising news. Hopefully such changes could help athletes during their careers and into retirement.

Sprong, 20, was the 46th pick of the 2015 NHL Draft. He’s been generating solid numbers at the OHL, so it will be interesting to see how he converts that to AHL work. Sprong played 18 regular-season games for the Penguins back in 2015-16, notching two goals.

There are some bullet points that can sell Nolan, but the 28-year-old’s production was quite limited at the NHL level. Nolan’s never scored 10 goals in a single season; in fact, he’s only reached 10 points once in his career (six goals and four assists in 64 regular-season contests back in 2013-14).

Overall, it wouldn’t be surprising if a team targeted Nolan as a depth guy, even if his ceiling is limited.

While the Penguins’ entries seem notable for sheer volume as much as anything else, Frank Corrado is another name that stands out.

Corrado was often the catalyst for debates about his playing time (or lack thereof) with the Toronto Maple Leafs, but it doesn’t seem like the defenseman is having much success catching on with the Penguins, either.

Zatkoff, meanwhile, fits in with quite a few other names on this list: possibly prominent in the AHL, only likely to get the occasional cup of coffee in the NHL, at this point.

The Detroit Red Wings missed the playoffs for the first time in 25 years, but there appears to be something good that came from that.

Instead of drafting in the back half of the first round, the Wings were able to get a top 10 selection in last June’s NHL Entry Draft. With the ninth overall pick, they chose power forward Michael Rasmussen.

Rasmussen is listed at 6-foot-6 and 215 pounds. NHLers of that size are a rare breed. Add the fact that he’s gifted offensively, and it looks like the Red Wings may have a gem coming through the pipeline.

In his first three career preseason games, the 18-year-old has already picked up two goals. His play hasn’t gone unnoticed by the organization.

With all big forwards, a lot of their success will be determined by their skating ability. In today’s NHL, it’s pretty clear that you need to be able to move if you’re going to have a long and productive career. But according to Blashill, skating isn’t a big issue with Rasmussen.

“I think he skates well. People have questioned that, but I don’t see that at all. I think he covers lots of ground in a hurry. I think he needs to move his feet a little bit more at times in the D-zone, but overall I’ve been happy with his play.”

No matter what he does between now and the end of training camp, it sounds like Rasmussen will be heading back to the WHL’s Tri-City Americans, where he’ll look to improve his numbers from last year (32 goals, 55 points in 50 games).